Analyzing cognitive involvement

ABSTRACT

A system and method for analyzing the cognitive involvement of one or more audience members may include receiving a first indication of cognitive involvement of an audience member in a presentation and calculating a cognitive involvement score from the first indication.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/440,171, filed on May 19, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,943, which application is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to the process of monitoring audience participation during a presentation, and more particularly to the process of analyzing the cognitive involvement of members of the audience during a presentation.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

“Cognitive involvement” refers to both the degree of focus on an event and overall activity of one's mental processes on tasks associated with that event. The focus on an event refers to the degree of concentration on a subject, for example, the degree to which a student is concentrating on his or her teacher's lesson. The overall activity of one's mental processes relating to an event refers to the amount of effort an individual puts forth on events or tasks related to the presentation. While it is impossible to accurately and dynamically calculate the mental processes of a human being, a close approximation may be derived from the overall physical activity of that person and the degree to which the physical activities relate to the presentation. For example, a student who is actively taking notes, or answering a teacher's question is more likely to be actively processing a teacher's lesson than one who is doodling, or sitting still.

It is important for anyone presenting information to another to be able to assess the cognitive involvement of his or her audience in order to determine the effectiveness of their presentation. From the presenter's perspective, the ability to determine the cognitive involvement of each audience member at any point in the presentation may be an invaluable means for critiquing or improving one's presentation skills, or as a means for dynamically changing a presentation in order to better serve the needs and interests of an audience.

In face-to-face, one-on-one interactions, a presenter may be able to identify when a listener is cognitively involved in the presentation by paying attention to visual clues. For example, seeing another person's eyes wander, or watching them doodle in a notebook suggests that the person is not focusing on the presentation. When the presentation is not face-to-face, or when the presenter is speaking to more than one individual, the presenter is not able to as easily determine whether each audience member is cognitively involved at any point in time.

Multiple methods have been developed and used in order to attempt to analyze the cognitive involvement of an audience member. Such methods typically rely on a user's response, such as user feedback, a user question, or other user activity intended to convey information to the presenter. For example, the analyzer system, as described at www.perceptionanalyzer.com, provides a remote device for users to respond to questions. Any system or method that requires an affirmative response of an audience member as a sole criteria is inherently flawed, because the audience member is aware that the presenter expects a response. This knowledge provides an incentive to the audience member to respond, therefore artificially inflating any determination of the involvement of the audience member.

Instead, it is desirable to determine the cognitive involvement of audience members using an objective formula, based on realistic criteria in order to arrive at a cognitive involvement score. Such a system preferably includes the ability to rely on criteria other than prompted or unprompted audience responses. In addition, it is desirable to provide a means for dynamically displaying the results of the determination to the presenter.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the invention, a system and method for analyzing the cognitive involvement of one or more audience members may include receiving a first indication of cognitive involvement of an audience member in a presentation and calculating a cognitive involvement score from the first indication.

Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the invention, as claimed. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a non computer implemented presentation;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting a computer implemented presentation;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a representative computer system which may be used consistent with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart depicting a method for gathering and reporting information for calculating a cognitive involvement score;

FIG. 5 is a depiction of a computer screen demonstrating an application that is “in focus” consistent with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart depicting a method for determining the cognitive involvement of an audience member;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart depicting a method for calculating a cognitive involvement score for an audience member;

FIG. 8 is an example of a scoring system usable for scoring audience member's activities consistent with the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a graph depicting an exemplary display of a cognitive involvement score for a single audience member; and

FIG. 10 is graph depicting an exemplary display of a cognitive involvement score for each of a plurality of audience members.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

A presentation is a demonstration, either audio, visual, or audio-visual, carried out by a presenter for the benefit of an audience. A presentation may be one-sided or it may be interactive. For example, a conference (such as at a board room table, or a conference telephone call) is a presentation. In a conference, any speaker may be considered a presenter, and the remainder of the participants are the audience to that speaker. The audience members may have the opportunity or ability to respond, such as by asking questions, answering questions, or otherwise interacting with the presenter. However, the ability to interact is not required for the demonstration to be a presentation. One of ordinary skill in the art will therefore recognize that, consistent with the present invention, a presentation may include any situation in which an individual is speaking, demonstrating or otherwise conveying information to one or more other people.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram showing presentation 100. Presentation 100 consists of presenter 102, and one or more audience members 104 a-d. FIG. 1 depicts four audience members, however one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that any number of audience members may be present without departing from the scope of the present invention. Presentation 100 requires a communication channel 112 a-d from presenter 102 to each audience member, in order for the presenter's demonstration to be perceived by the audience member. In addition, presentation 100 may also include a communication link 114 a-d by which audience member 104 may respond to presenter 102.

Communication channels 112 a-d and 114 a-d may utilize any one or more now known or later developed communication means. For example, if presentation 100 is presented live, then presenter 102 and audience member 104 may communicate orally along links 112 a-d and 114 a-d. If however, the presentation is being conducted such that presenter 102 and an audience member 104 are physically located at different locations, other communications channels may be utilized. In the latter case, communication links 112 or 114 may comprise closed circuit television, telephone, video or audio conferencing, voice-over Internet, etc. One of ordinary skill in the art will also recognize that communication links 112 and 114 may be implemented as two-way communication links from audience member 104 to presenter 102.

FIG. 2 depicts a presentation 200 conducted using one or more computers. In presentation 200, presenter 102 utilizes presenter computer 204, and audience members 104 a-d utilize audience computers 206 a-d, respectively. Presentation 200 also includes communication links 112 a-d from presenter 102 to audience members 104 a-d, respectively. Presentation 200 may also include communication channel 114 a-d from audience members 104 a-d to presenter 102, to facilitate audience responses.

In one embodiment, communication links 112 and 114 may comprise communication links 112 a, 112 b, 114 a, and 114 b, by which presenter 102 may communicate with audience member 104 b. In this embodiment, presenter 102 may input the presentation via a microphone, video camera or other input into computer 204 or may create a presentation on the computer such as by utilizing Microsoft's PowerPoint™ presentation software. Presenter computer 204 may then transmit the presentation to audience member 104 a-b via a network 202 and audience computer 206 a-b. Network 202 may comprise any one of a number of types of networks over which audience computer and presentation computers communicate including: Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), the Internet, and any other networks that distribute processing and share data among a plurality of nodes. Audience member 204 a may similarly respond to presenter 102 by inputting responses into audience computer 206 a for transmission to presenter 102 via the network and presenter computer 204.

In a second embodiment, communication links 112 and 114 may be implemented as communication links 112 c and 114 c. In this implementation, presenter 102 communicates to audience member 104 c by inputting the presentation into presenter computer 204 for transmission across communication link to audience member 104 c via audience computer 206 c. Communication link 206 c may be may be any dedicated communication link between presenter computer 204 and audience computer 206 c, such as a phone modem connection, USB connection, wireless connection or other communication means. Audience member 104 c may then respond by inputting any response into audience computer 206 d for transmission to presenter 102 via presenter computer 204.

In a third embodiment, communication links 112 and 114 may be implemented as communication links 112 d and 114 d. In this implementation, presenter 102 communicates to audience member 104 d by inputting the presentation into presenter computer 204 for transmission across communication link directly to audience member 104 d. Audience member 104 d may then respond by inputting any response into audience computer 206 d for direct transmission to presenter 102. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that any of the communication methods described in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be used in any combination, without departing from the scope and spirit of the present invention.

In one embodiment, presenter computer 204 and audience computers 206 a-d may implement the presentation by incorporating hardware containing the necessary instructions. In a second embodiment, presentation 200 may be implemented as software, and, in a third embodiment, a combination of hardware and software may be used to implement a presentation in accordance with the present invention.

Any one or more of presenter computer 204 and audience computers 206 a-d may be part of a conventional distributed processing system architecture. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system 300 in which an embodiment of the invention in a distributed processing environment may be practiced. Computer system 300 includes bus 302 or other communication mechanism for communicating information, and processor 304 coupled to bus 302 for processing information. Computer system 300 also includes a main memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 306, coupled to bus 302 for storing information and instructions during execution by processor 304. RAM 306 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 304. Computer system 300 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 308 or other storage device coupled to bus 302 for storing static information and instructions for processor 304. A storage device 310, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus 302 for storing information and instructions.

Computer system 300 may be coupled via bus 302 to display 312, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user. Input device 314, including alphanumeric and other keys, is coupled to bus 302 for communicating information and command selections to processor 304. Another type of user input device is cursor control 316, such as a mouse, a trackball or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selections to processor 304 and for controlling cursor movement on display 312. This input device typically has two degrees of freedom in two axes, a first axis (e.g., x) and a second axis (e.g., y), which allow the device to specify positions in a plane.

According to one embodiment, computer system 300 performs the instructions necessary to execute a presentation, and either alone or in combination with another computer system, calculates a cognitive involvement score for one or more audience members in response to processor 304 executing one or more sequences of instructions contained in RAM 306. Such instructions may be read into RAM 306 from another computer-readable medium, such as storage device 310. Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in RAM 306 causes processor 304 to perform the process steps described herein. In an alternative implementation, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with software instructions to implement the invention. Thus, implementations consistent with the principles of the present invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any media that participates in providing instructions to processor 304 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage device 310. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 306. Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise bus 302. Transmission media may also take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio-wave and infra-red data communications.

Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, carrier wave, or any other medium from which a computer may read. For the purposes of this discussion, carrier waves are the signals which carry the data to and from computer 300.

Various forms of computer-readable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor 304 for execution. For example, the instructions may initially be carried on the magnetic disk of a remote computer. The remote computer may load the instructions into a dynamic memory and send the instructions over a telephone line using a modem. A modem local to computer system 300 may receive the data on the telephone line and use an infra-red transmitter to convert the data to an infra-red signal. An infra-red detector coupled to bus 302 may receive the data carried in the infra-red signal and place the data on bus 302. Bus 302 carries the data to main memory 306, from which processor 304 retrieves and executes the instructions. The instructions received by main memory 306 may optionally be stored on storage device 310 either before or after execution by processor 304.

Computer system 300 also includes a communication interface 318 coupled to bus 302. Communication interface 318 provides a two-way data communication coupling to a network link 320 that may be connected to network 202. Network 202 may be a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or any other network configuration. For example, communication interface 318 may be an integrated services digital network (ISDN) card or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line. Computer system 300 may communicate with host 324 via network 202. As another example, communication interface 318 may be a local area network (LAN) card to provide a data communication connection to a compatible LAN. Wireless links may also be implemented. In any such implementation, communication interface 318 sends and receives electrical, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information.

Network link 320 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices. In this embodiment, network 202 may comprise an Internet Service Provider (ISP). For example, network link 320 may provide a connection to data equipment operated by the ISP. ISP 326, in turn, provides data communication services from server 330 or host 324 to computer system 300. Network 202 may use electric, electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams. Network link 320, communicating via network 202 may function as communication link 112 and/or communication link 114, consistent with the present invention.

Computer system 300 may send messages and receive data, including program code, through network 202, network link 320 and communication interface 318. In this embodiment, a server 330 may transmit an application program to computer 300 via network 202 and communication interface 318. In accordance with the present invention, one such downloaded application analyzes the cognitive involvement of audience members in a presentation. The received code may be executed by processor 304 as it is received and/or stored in storage device 310, or other non-volatile storage for later execution.

Although computer system 300 is shown in FIG. 3 as connectable to server 330, those skilled in the art will recognize that computer system 300 may establish connections to multiple servers on the Internet. Each such server includes an HTML-based Internet application, which may provide information to computer system 300 upon request in a manner consistent with the present invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a flowchart that describes a method 400 for gathering and reporting information usable to calculate a cognitive involvement score for an audience member. In one embodiment, the steps of method 400 are performed by processor 304 of audience computer 206.

Audience computer 206 begins by initiating processing of the presentation (step 400). As the presentation continues, audience member 104 may be focusing on presentation 200 on audience computer 206, but may also be performing any number of other tasks or activities either at the same time, or in place of focusing on the presentation.

Audience computer 206 next determines whether the presentation is in focus by the audience member (step 404). Audience computer 206 may do so by determining whether processor 304 is processing the instructions necessary to conduct the presentation, or if processor 304 is processing instructions necessary to perform an unrelated task or process. In an alternative embodiment, audience computer 206 may determine whether the presentation application operating on the audience computer 206 is in focus on audience computer 206. For an audience computer 206 running a Windows-based or other similar operating system that allows multiple processes or applications to be “open” simultaneously, computer 206 may determine which “open” application is currently in the foreground of the desktop and therefore “in focus.”

For example, FIG. 5 depicts a representative screen from audience computer 206, in which two applications, 500 and 502 are open. Application 500 is open, but is in the background and is not currently active, therefore, it is said to be “out of focus.” Application 502 is in the foreground, and is therefore “in focus.” Audience computer 206 may therefore determine whether presentation 200 is in focus by determining whether the presentation application is application 500 or 502.

Once audience computer 206 has determined whether presentation 200 is in focus (step 404), it generates a focus indication (step 406). This indication will contain sufficient information necessary to indicate to presenter computer whether the application is “in focus.” In addition, the indication may contain other information, such as the area of the display of audience computer 206 covered by the presentation application (or the information necessary to calculate it). Audience computer 206 will then send the focus indication to presenter computer 204 (step 408), and may do so using communication link 114 or another communication link.

During viewing of the presentation, audience member 104 will be performing one or more tasks. The tasks or activities performed by audience member 104 may either be responsive or non-responsive. A responsive activity is one intended by the audience member to convey information to, or to communicate with the presenter. For example, asking or responding to a question, or inputting a command to a computer to cause information to be conveyed to the presenter are responsive activities. Non-responsive activities include all other activities performed by the audience member that are not intended to convey information to the presenter. Such activities may be related to the presentation, for example, taking notes, or inputting a command to a computer to cause a presentation application to become “in focus” (discussed further below). In addition, activities unrelated to the presentation, such as doodling, are non-responsive activities.

Audience computer 206 will record all tasks or activities performed on audience computer 206 (step 410). Audience computer 206 will then generate an activity indication for both responsive and non-responsive tasks (step 412). Each activity indication will identify a task that has been performed by audience member 104. For example, audience computer 206 may generate an activity indication for each movement of the mouse, for each command inputted by the user causing a question to be presented (responsive), for each time a mouse pointer passes over an application, icon, or other area of the computer screen (non-responsive), or for any other activity performed on the audience computer. Audience computer will then send the activity indications to presenter computer 204 and may do so via communications link 114 or via other equivalent communication means to presenter computer 204.

FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart that describes a method 600 for analyzing the cognitive involvement of audience members in a presentation. In one embodiment of the computer implemented presentation 200, the method for analyzing the cognitive involvement of audience members is loaded into and performed by processor 304 of presenter computer 204.

Processor 304 begins when a presenter initiates the presentation (step 602). As the presenter conducts the presentation, audience member 104 is able to perceive the presentation as described in FIG. 4. As the presentation continues, audience member 104 may be focusing on presentation 200 on audience computer 206, but may also be performing any number of other tasks or activities either at the same time, or in place of focusing on the presentation.

Presenter computer 204 may receive a focus indication, i.e., an indication of whether or not the presentation is in focus by audience computer 206 (step 604). In focus means that the audience member is paying attention to the presentation. In one exemplary embodiment, audience computer 206 may determine whether the presentation is in focus (step 404, FIG. 4). Presenter computer 204 may also receive an activity indication for each activity performed by audience member 104 (step 606). The activity indication will identify that the task or activity has been performed by audience member 104.

Processor 304 of presenter computer 204 will calculate a cognitive involvement score for audience member 104 (step 608) from one or more of the focus and/or activity indications received. The cognitive involvement score for audience member 104 may be calculated once for an entire presentation, or may be calculated for a series of time samples, such that the audience member's cognitive involvement in the presentation may be traced over time.

Referring now to FIG. 7, there is shown a more detailed flowchart describing method 700 for calculating a cognitive involvement score (step 608). The process begins when processor 304 calculates a focus value (step 702) from the information received in the focus indication. A focus value represents the level of cognitive involvement of audience member 104 in the presentation.

In one embodiment, the focus value may consist of a Boolean value (a “1” or “0”) representing whether the presentation (or presentation application) is in focus. For example, a value of “1” may indicate that the presentation is in focus, whereas a “0” would indicate that the presentation is not in focus. In a second embodiment, processor 304 may calculate the focus value by computing a percentage value representing the percentage of the audience member's attention that is focused on the presentation. For example, processor 304 may calculate the percentage of the area of the audience member's desktop that is covered by the presentation application (whether or not the application is in the foreground). Processor 304 may also calculate the percentage of time that audience member spent performing a task associated with the presentation.

In a third embodiment, processor 304 may calculate the focus value as a decimal value. More specifically, processor 304 may multiply a Boolean value (F) by the percentage of the area of the audience member's desktop that is covered by the presentation application. The method will utilize the formula:

$\frac{F \times \left( {{Area}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{Presentation}} \right)}{\left( {{Area}\mspace{14mu}{of}\mspace{14mu}{the}\mspace{14mu}{Screen}} \right)}$ Therefore, if the application is out of focus, the Boolean value (F) will be “0,” and the result will be zero, denoting that the audience member is not focused on the presentation. If, however, the presentation application is in focus, the Boolean value (F) will be “1” and the result of the formula will be the percentage of the area of the computer screen that is covered by the presentation application.

After calculating a focus value, processing flows to step 704, where a score is assigned to each activity indicated by the received activity indications. Each activity indication identifies a task or activity performed by audience member 104 or audience computer 206 during the presentation. The scores for each activity may be preassigned, or assigned dynamically.

An example of one possible set of assigned values is depicted in FIG. 8. FIG. 8 depicts a non-exhaustive list of activities that may be performed on audience computer 206. In this example, a higher score represents a higher level of cognitive involvement. As shown, the act of asking a question of the presenter would necessarily involve more cognitive involvement than “moving the mouse” on the computer desktop. Therefore, “asking a question” receives more points (400) than “moving the mouse” (20). In general, performance of any activities associated with the presentation would require more cognitive involvement than would performance of computer or operating system events. Therefore, the points awarded for an activity associated with the presentation would be higher than those for the computer or operating system events.

Once the points have been awarded for the activities performed, the points are used to create an activity value for the audience member (step 706). In one embodiment, the points for all activities for the audience member may be added together to compute the activity score.

Finally, processor 304 will calculate a cognitive involvement score from the activity value and the focus value (step 708). In one embodiment, the cognitive involvement score will be calculated by adding the focus value (in decimal form) to the activity value. In this embodiment, the cognitive involvement score will comprise a number, having a decimal portion and a whole number portion. The whole number portion of the cognitive involvement score will represent the activity value, and its magnitude will indicate the overall level of activity associated with the presentation. For example, if activity values are assigned such that a higher score is awarded for an activity associated with the presentation, then a higher activity score will correspondingly demonstrate a higher level of cognitive involvement. In addition, the decimal portion of the cognitive involvement score will indicate the focus value, representing the degree of focus by the audience member on the presentation.

In this embodiment, a number such as 7400.23 will indicate a high level of activity (assuming activity values are assigned such that a higher score is awarded for an activity associated with the presentation), for a low degree of focus. An audience member awarded such a score would have been focused on the presentation for a relatively small amount of time, but with great participation during that time. In contrast, an audience member awarded a 400.90 would indicate an audience member who is focused on the presentation, but who is relatively inactive. This would be the case if the application was maintained in the foreground, but without much activity.

In another embodiment, the cognitive involvement score may be computed by multiplying the decimal focus value by the activity value to create a relative score for the audience member. In this embodiment, the 7400.23 would be represented as 1702 (the product of 7400×0.23), the activity score being significantly reduced to indicate the low degree of focus. The 400.90 would be represented as 360 (400×0.9), a relatively high cognitive involvement score for a low degree of activity.

In one embodiment, the cognitive involvement score will be a focus value representing the degree of focus on the presentation. In another embodiment, the cognitive involvement score will be an activity value representing a degree to which one or more activities performed by an audience member demonstrate cognitive involvement in the presentation.

Referring to FIG. 6, it is shown that once the cognitive involvement score for an audience member has been calculated, the cognitive involvement score for that audience member may be displayed to presenter 102 (step 410). Such a display may take any form, and may be displayed on presenter computer 204 or simply communicated to presenter 102 via any other known or later developed method.

In one exemplary embodiment, the cognitive involvement score for a user may take the form of a graph such as shown in FIG. 9. FIG. 9 depicts a two-dimensional graph on which Y axis 902 charts the cognitive involvement (CI) score, and X axis 904 charts the time for which the score was calculated. In addition, the slides 914 indicate the progression of presentation 200 along the timeline.

In this example, as the value of Y increases, the level of cognitive involvement of the audience member is greater. At point 906, during slide 1, the user may have asked a question of the presenter, or responded to a question posed by the presenter. Point 908, corresponding to slide 2, may represent a score for an audience member whose cognitive involvement was much lower. For example, the audience member may be checking email on their computer during that slide. Similarly, at point 910, corresponding to slide 5, the cognitive involvement score has decreased to 0, which may represent that the audience member has logged off audience computer 206, thus ending participation in the presentation. Finally, at point 912, during slide 7, the audience member has a mid-level of cognitive involvement, which may be representative of a user that is logged on, and the presentation application is in focus, but there is little activity for the user.

The cognitive involvement score generated may also be plotted for each audience member. In this case, the cognitive involvement scores for each audience member may be plotted together on a single graph such as that shown in FIG. 10.

For brevity, the above discussion describes the present invention in the context of a computerized presentation 200, wherein method 600 is executing on presenter computer 204, and method 400 is executing on audience computer 206. Each step of the processes performed by the present invention may be, but need not be performed by the same computer. In one exemplary configuration, one or more steps of method 600 may be performed at audience computer 206. For example, audience computer 206 may perform steps 402-408, and may even generate a graphical representation for display at the presenter computer 204. Similarly, one or more steps of method 400 may be performed by presenter computer 204.

Finally, one of ordinary skill in the art will also recognize that method 400 may be implemented in manually implemented presentation 100, in which the steps of methods 400 and 600 may be performed by audience member 104, presenter 102, another individual associated with the presentation, or on a dedicated device such as a remote or handheld device capable of performing the described steps.

In manually-implemented presentation 100, whether the presentation is “in focus” may be determined in a number of ways. For example, presenter 102 or another individual associated with presenter 102 may watch audience member 104 to determine if the audience member is focused on the presentation. Such tasks or actions that may be indicative of involvement in the presentation include responding to a question, maintaining eye contact with the presenter, or looking back to earlier notes from the presentation. The actions or tasks may, however indicate that audience member 104 is not focused on the presentation (i.e., the audience member is doodling, or has stood up to leave the room).

In a manually-implemented presentation, presenter 102, or other individual performing the steps of method 400, will receive an indication of every task performed by audience member 104. In this embodiment, such tasks may reflect physical activities, rather than computer processes or inputs. For example, activity indications could be generated for all activities, such as (1) taking notes, (2) eating a snack, (3) doodling in a notebook, and (4) leaving the room. The activities listed are not intended to be exhaustive lists, and one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that, consistent with the principles of the present invention, any task performed by audience member 104 or audience computer 206 may be indicated. In a manually-implemented presentation, an activity indication may be generated and sent by another human, by a handheld device or by other means, for every activity performed by audience member 104.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims. 

1. A method in a participant computer system for indicating to a presenter whether a participant in a computer-based presentation is paying attention to the presentation, the method comprising: displaying to the participant a presentation window containing content of the presentation; determining a current status of the presentation window, wherein determining the current status of the presentation window includes determining whether the presentation window is in current focus on a display of the participant computer system; and notifying a presenter computer system during the presentation of the current status of the presentation window as an indication of whether the participant is paying attention to the presentation, wherein the presenter computer system is a separate computer system from the participant computer system, wherein the presenter computer system displays to the presenter during the presentation an indication of whether the participant is paying attention to the presentation, and wherein the displayed indication is a score of a degree to which the participant is paying attention to the presentation, wherein the score is based at least in part on the determination of whether the presentation window is in current focus on the display of the participant computer system.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the current status of the presentation window includes determining whether the presentation window is currently minimized.
 3. The method of claim 2 wherein when the presentation window is currently minimized, the participant is considered to not be paying attention to the presentation.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein when the presentation window is not in current focus, the participant is considered to not be paying attention to the presentation.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the current status of the presentation window includes determining whether the presentation window is at least partially covered by another window.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein when the presentation window is at least partially covered by another window, the participant is considered to not be paying attention to the presentation.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the score is a numerical score of the degree to which the participant is paying attention to the presentation.
 8. A method in presenter computer system for indicating to a presenter whether participants in a computer-based presentation are paying attention to the presentation, the method comprising: receiving from participant computer systems, for a series of time samples during the presentation, indications of states of the participant computer systems at times of the time samples, wherein the participant computer systems are separate from the presenter computer system, wherein the state of each participant computer system is determined based on a current status of a presentation window on the participant computer system in which content of the presentation is displayed at the times of the time samples, and wherein the state is received from the participant computer system during the presentation; for each of the participant computer systems, generating, for each of the series of time samples, a score of a degree to which a participant at the participant computer system is paying attention to the presentation, wherein the score is based at least in part on the determination of the current status of the presentation window on the participant computer system as indicated by the received indication for the time sample; and displaying to the presenter on a single display the generated scores for each of the participant computer systems, wherein each of the scores is displayed in relation to a time during the presentation for which the score was generated and a portion of the presentation displayed when the score was generated, so that the presenter can assess cognitive involvement of multiple participants in the presentation in order to determine effectiveness of the presentation and dynamically change the presentation to make the presentation more effective.
 9. The method of claim 8 wherein the score is a numerical score of the degree to which the participant is paying attention to the presentation.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein the state indicates whether the presentation window is currently minimized.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein the state indicates whether the presentation window is in current focus.
 12. The method of claim 8 wherein the state indicates whether the presentation window is at least partially covered by another window.
 13. A presentation system for presenting a conference to multiple participants at participant computer systems connected via a network, the presentation system comprising: a component at each participant computer system that, periodically during the conference, determines a state of the participant computer system and sends the state to a presenter computer system during the conference, wherein the state of the participant computer system is determined based on whether a presentation window on a display of the participant computer system is in current focus on the display of the participant computer system, wherein the presentation window displays content of the conference, and wherein the presenter computer system is a separate computer system from the participant computer systems; and a component at the presenter computer system that: receives the states sent by the participant computer systems during the conference, generates, for each received state, score of a degree to which a participant at the participant computer system is paying attention to the conference, wherein the score is based at least in part on the determination of whether the presentation window is in current focus on the display of the participant computer system, and displays to the presenter the generated scores for each of the participant computer systems, wherein the scores are displayed on a single two-dimensional graph that indicates the degree to which the multiple participants are paying attention to the conference over time, wherein the graph includes: a y-axis that represents the scores, an x-axis that represents time during the conference for which the scores were generated, and indications of presentation slides displayed during the conference, wherein the indications are displayed parallel to the x-axis, and wherein each of the indications is displayed in reference to a point on the x-axis that represents a time during the conference that the presentation slide was displayed, so that the scores are displayed on the graph in reference to times during the conference for which the scores were generated and presentation slides on display when the scores were generated, so that the presenter can assess cognitive involvement of the multiple participants in order to determine effectiveness of the conference and dynamically change the conference to make the conference more effective.
 14. The presentation system of claim 13 wherein the presentation window is not in current focus if the presentation window is currently minimized.
 15. The presentation system of claim 14 wherein the presentation window is not in focus if another window is in focus on top of the presentation window.
 16. The presentation system of claim 14 wherein an overall score represents a degree to which the participant is paying attention during the entire conference.
 17. The presentation system of claim 13 wherein the state of the participant computer system is further determined based on activity of the participant at the participant computer system. 